6 Public Purpose n Spring 2011

As tens of thousands of people gathered in Madison, Wis. in February to protest Governor Scott Walker’s

proposed legislation to eliminate public employee’s collective bargaining rights, the campus community at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh was engaged in conversation on how to foster and maintain civility on college and university campuses. The Oshkosh gathering—with a spirit of collaboration and mutual respect that included representatives from throughout the UW system—was a stark contrast to the tense scene taking place nearly 100 miles away at the state’s capitol.

The main goal of the workshop, “Civility in Everyday Life,” held on Feb. 24-25, was to discuss ways the UW System campuses could develop and support initiatives that would promote

academic freedom and free speech in open environments that honor diversity. While etiquette and good manners are essential components of civility, says UW Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells, the primary concern on college campuses relates to respect for people and for their ideas.

“It is clear that we need to put student learning about democracy and the public good at the center of academic inquiry,” Wells told the group gathered for the workshop. “We need to gain deeper institutional understanding about how to educate students for democracy, how liberal education can foster civic engagement, what stands in the way of these efforts, and what new directions institutions might take in making civic learning a core component of every graduate’s education.”

The UW workshop—which brought together administrators, faculty, staff and students to discuss the meaning of civility and glean ideas from nationally recognized campus-based civility programs—is one of many emerging, deliberate efforts across the country to foster civility on college and university campuses. As the rhetoric of U.S. politicians becomes more caustic and polarizing, university leaders throughout the country are taking up the cause of guiding students to become not only more tolerant of diversity, but willing to engage in dialogue with people whose viewpoints are different.

And most Americans—who are increasingly exasperated with petty bickering among politicians and the media’s rush to report on their snarky comments—seem ready for a more

by Karen Doss Bowman

More than Good Manners:Cultivating a Spirit of Open Dialogue and Civility on Campus

7Spring 2011 n Public Purpose

neighborly climate. In April 2010, Allegheny College’s (Pa.) Center for Political Participation conducted a survey of civility and compromise in American politics titled, “Nastiness, Name-Calling and Negativity.” The survey found that while 95 percent of Americans believe that civility in politics is crucial to a healthy democracy, nearly 50 percent believe the tone of politics has declined since President Barack Obama assumed office in 2009. Additionally, 85 percent of Americans said that politicians should “cultivate friendships” with members of different political parties.

What is Civility?Civility may be broadly defined,

but most colleges and universities are focusing their efforts at maintaining civility in terms of academic freedom, free speech, civic engagement and civil discourse. George L. Mehaffy, who helped create and spearheads AASCU’s American Democracy Project, says civility is closely connected to the initiative’s goal of preparing students to be informed and engaged in a healthy democracy.

“Civility comes in a lot of different forms, but we’re interested in it because it is a core part of democracy,” says Mehaffy, AASCU’s vice president for academic leadership and change. “The notion of civility is not as much about being nice as

it is about tolerating the views of others and listening to others with whom you might disagree. It’s a key element in a democratic society.”

Wells adds: “Incivility threatens academic freedom and free speech, but civility enhances it…But academic freedom is a special form of free speech that requires reasoned inquiry, intellectual honesty and scholarly competence…It’s important to talk about that intersection of civility with academic freedom exercised responsibly.”

Wells recalls facing a thorny situation on the Oshkosh campus several years ago, when a student organization invited a speaker to campus to discuss his theories that the U.S. government coordinated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to trigger war in the Middle East. Though Wells was pressured to not allow the speaker on campus—and he did not endorse the speaker’s views—he allowed the visit, emphasizing that it would give students “a chance to exercise their critical thinking abilities,” he says. The event sparked a semester of panels centered on the idea of academic freedom in which participants discussed matters such as “Why do people believe weird things?” and “What is the responsible exercise of academic freedom?”

“We framed the event as an

opportunity for members of the campus community to deepen their understanding of academic freedom and intellectual responsibility, how the two fit together and why they must both be upheld if higher education is to serve the common good,” Wells says. “Civility requires restraint, respect and responsibility…How we handle people—especially those with outlandish ideas—is a reflection of the quality of our interaction with other human beings.”

Extending Civility in the Classroom

While campus classrooms are intended to be safe places where faculty and students may exchange ideas and learn from one another, both groups sometimes are uncomfortable talking about difficult issues. At the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA), for example, where tensions often exist between the state’s Native communities and the university, two grants from the Ford Foundation’s Difficult Dialogues initiative funded a series of faculty-development intensives designed to offer strategies for handling potentially heated discussions. The university partnered with Alaska Pacific University (APU), a nearby small liberal arts college, to flesh out common concerns.

“The intention was making our

More than Good Manners:

As the rhetoric of U.S. politicians becomes more caustic

and polarizing, university leaders throughout the

country are taking up the cause of guiding students

to become not only more tolerant of diversity, but

willing to engage in dialogue with people

whose viewpoints are different.

8 Public Purpose n Spring 2011

learning environments more amenable to civil discourse on controversial topics and more inclusive of minority ways of knowing and thinking,” explains Libby Roderick, associate director of UAA’s Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence and director of the university’s Difficult Dialogues initiative. “We were trying to equip faculty to feel competent and skillful about a range of ways to introduce particularly charged topics, including those related to our indigenous communities, and have meaningful discussions.”

The initiative resulted in the handbook, “Start Talking: A Handbook for Engaging Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education,” which documents the training sessions in which UAA and APU faculty participated. The book, which Roderick says may be transferrable to a variety of settings, offers strategies for faculty to engage difficult dialogues in the classroom. The university has set up faculty learning communities that meet each semester and use “Start Talking” as a basis for discussions of difficult topics they have encountered or wish to introduce.

“We have trained an effective cohort of faculty who have been introduced to these approaches for tackling issues that were perceived as intimidating before,” says Roderick, adding that the “Start Talking” project has been transformed into a national resource for faculty at difficultdialoguesuaa.org. “We now have a

stronger, more confident and more skillful base, and a culture that is far more aware of and prepared for difficult dialogues of all kinds.”

Getting Student Leaders Involved

At Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), students are leading efforts to foster civility on campus through the student organization, Democracy Plaza (DP). DP sponsors a free speech zone, also called Democracy Plaza, which contains 22 large, two-sided chalkboards where thought-provoking questions about current events or hot-button issues are posted weekly. Passersby are invited and encouraged to respond to the questions or to other posters’ comments, explains DP president Anne Weiss, a fourth-year student who will graduate in May. Sometimes visitors to the board will cross out or refute other posted comments, and controversial postings are transformed into learning opportunities when possible.

“This is a passive way to engage in civility or deliberations,” Weiss explains. “But there’s always the sense that you can write what you’re really thinking. The space itself is what we call a ‘free speech space.’”

DP also hosts two campus-wide events—“Pass the Mic” and “I Heard, I Read, I Saw”—where student facilitators guide their peers and other community members through discussions on current

events. The topic on Fat Tuesday, for example, was political and religious fasting, and why people fast for political and religious purposes. The DP student leaders, who hand out white sheets on the topic before the discussion begins, are trained to lead the forums and how to handle controversial comments. Weiss says she trains facilitators to use a variety of techniques, including acknowledging the comment or redirecting the discussion back to facts printed on the white sheets.

“It’s very powerful for our facilitators to show the audience by their reactions that this is not a threat, this is a free speech place,” Weiss says. “We want people to feel safe, and we want people to be sharing, and we need to model the proper action or reaction to those comments so that other people in the space feel just as comfortable sharing their ideas.”

Lorrie Brown, acting director for IUPUI’s Office of Student Involvement and a DP adviser, believes the student-led activities fostering civility are highly effective.

“There’s a lot of power in peer-to-peer discussion,” Brown says. “These are our future leaders, our future politicians, and I think there’s a lot of dissatisfaction with how our public discourse is portrayed in the media. Hopefully, if students see this modeled when they’re in college, they can start to see that it’s okay to listen to the other side.”

Involving the campus community

The principles of civility—including diversity and tolerance—

should be incorporated in the

institution’s mission statement,

curriculum and student programming.

9Spring 2011 n Public Purpose

in discussions centered on the issue of diversity also promotes a civil environment. At California University of Pennsylvania, for example, Black History Month became the opportunity to sponsor events such as a “soul food” dinner, open to everyone in the community to create a stronger sense of family. Additionally, Cal U. alumnus and multi-cultural educator Brian Johnson presented “Reel Diversity,” a discussion of the role Hollywood plays in the public’s understanding of diversity.

The Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne’s (IPFW) Diversity Council sponsors an annual Diversity Showcase, featuring a poster session, forums and performances focused on civility and “celebrating the many facets of success we have achieved through working together and discovering new heights as diverse people,” says the organization’s website. Because campus life exposes many young students to new ideas and people from a variety of backgrounds—including international students—universities should surround students with opportunities to learn from these experiences, says Bill McKinney, IPFW’s vice chancellor for academic affairs.

“At our core, universities have an obligation to have an open and civil environment in order to have free inquiry,” says McKinney, who co-chairs the Diversity Council. “Public universities have a responsibility to serve the greater good. We have a first amendment obligation to have free speech and open forums…in an area that promotes learning. I think that’s one of the great benefits of American higher education, particularly public higher education.”

Spreading CivilityFor colleges and universities that

want to start or expand initiatives to foster civility on campus, Roderick suggests securing support from administrators at the highest level of the organization.

“What’s really necessary for

these programs to succeed is having administrative champions, giving support to their university for developing skills in faculty, who recognize that [conducting effective difficult dialogues] is at the heart of the university mission,” Roderick says. “You really do need administrative champions and visionaries who see the importance of this work.”

On-campus efforts to cultivate civility may be reinforced by involving the broader, off-campus community, says Wells, whose university community has been involved in the town of Oshkosh’s community-based Civility Project. This participation allows the university to provide good citizenship and enhance the town’s efforts at promoting civility and tolerance.

McKinney adds that the principles of civility—including diversity and tolerance—should be incorporated in the institution’s mission statement, curriculum and student programming. Civility is integrated into IPFW’s baccalaureate framework, and faculty members are encouraged to include

civility statements in their syllabi. “One of our crucial outcomes is a

sense of community, so civility is a part of our ethos—it’s part of who we are,” McKinney says. “By making a statement [about civility], the institution is saying that at the very core of the university, we create an environment where every individual should feel within a comfort zone. We have an environment where students can pursue learning unfettered by the concerns that would come up in an environment that is not civil.” P

Karen Doss Bowman is an independent writer and editor based in Bridgewater, Va.

National Institute for Civil Discourse EstablishedIn response to President Barack Obama’s call for Americans to embrace civility

following the recent shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the University of Arizona (UA) has established the National Institute for Civil Discourse. The non-partisan center will strive to move forward the national conversation about civility and political debate.

“The purpose will be to promote civic engagement and robust political debate to the full extent of the First Amendment,” says Brint Milward, director of the center and director of UA’s School of Government and Public Policy. “We want to foster ties between people of all political persuasions.”

The political spectrum is represented in the Institute’s leadership. Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton serve as honorary chairs for the institute, along with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (retired) and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Dashle as honorary co-chairs. The Institute will engage in research, education and policy generation regarding civility in public discourse.

“What better place to begin [these conversations about civil discourse] than at a university,” Milward says. “The foundation upon which universities are built is the free and open exchange of ideas, and the rigorous scrutiny of those ideas.”For more information, visit nicd.arizona.edu/.